They Lurk Within Stone

The Drow had escaped, and we were left with the bodies of the spiders in a long cylindrical carriage that was trapped within their webs. From the holes in the walls of the carriage, we could see nothing but the darkness of the tunnel. We felt a slight tremor as the carriage struggled against the webs.

"We need to free the carriage," said Bran. "Fasil, what do you recommend?"

Fasil pondered for a bit. "You could hack at the webs, but that would take time. A magical fire could damage the strands."

Kale nodded and cast a spell to set the webs on fire.

"And perhaps," Bran pointed out, "we should brace ourselves for the moment when the carriage breaks free of these weakening webbbbbbbbbbb--"

Suddenly, the carriage tore free of the burning strands and continued speedily through the tunnel, knocking all of us down.

Fasil sat up and looked into the distance. "We should be there soon."

Slowly, the carriage drew to a halt. We stepped out into a dripping, wet room. On the wall, there was a mural of a man collecting rain in a seashell.

Fasil pointed to a set of stairs leading up. "This is where we should be going."

The stairs led to a dirty, narrow tunnel. The tunnel meandered through the earth before broadening. We followed it through until we found ourselves in a wide cavern littered with rocks and boulders.

Before us was a long wall with a low, broad archway. Above the archway was some writing.

Firinne started to walk closer, and suddenly, the rocks around us came to life.

Five creatures emerged from the rock: two humanoids that appeared to be made of the earth itself, a third, smaller rock-like humanoid, and two beasts that had three claws around a single, staring eye.

At this point, Tiny, Garg, and Ryn suddenly vanished, leaving only the five of us (Bran, Firinne, Kale, Carlagnios, and myself -- Aelar) to fight the monsters.

"What in Melora's name are they?"

Kale examined the creatures from a distance. "It appears that they are two stoneshapers, a rockcaller, and a Xorn." He went on to explain at length the history of these creatures (an explanation that was well above my head).

"I don't understand," confessed Bran. "What are you talking about?"

"Something about where the creatures came from," answered Firinne, "but I don't get it. It didn't make any sense to me."

"He said something something Hill Giants something," Carlagnios replied and shrugged.

Kale rolled his eyes. He gave us an exasperated look, as though he had come to a realization that the monsters we were battling were far more intelligent than the rest of us.

One of the stoneshapers hurled a shard of rock at Carlagnios, striking him. The others burrowed through the ground and quickly flanked Carlagnios. The rockcaller turned into a boulder and bashed Carlagnios, but Firinne interrupted his attack with a beam of fierce radiance. Kale made a psychic attack against one of the Xorn, and it began to bleed from what appeared to be its nose. Bran struck the creatures with his daggers, causing further damage to them, and I shot the rockcaller with a biting volley of arrows.

The creatures continued to strike Carlagnios, bloodying him badly. But Carlagnios had had enough. "Come and get it!" he snarled, drawing the creatures toward him and striking with his jagged axe. He slashed at them so quickly that we could not see anything but a thicket of blades. When it was over, he had killed the rockcaller and bloodied both Xorn badly.

Rock dust flew everywhere, and the Xorn submerged partly into the ground, making them difficult to hit.

One of the stoneshapers slammed his fists against the ground, forcing a stone wall to emerge in front of him. Bran quickly dodged the rising wall, but Kale and Carlagnios were knocked down. Carlagnios was in bad shape. Firinne challenged one of the Xorn to draw him away from Carlagnios. Carlagnios was able to take a second wind and recover.

We managed to destroy the two Xorn, and the stoneshapers retreated by submerging into the ground.

We searched the rest of the cavern and found a pile of bodies in a corner.

"We're not supposed to touch the dead," Carl pointed out, but Kale proceeded to examine the bodies.

One of the bodies was an Eladrin, and the other was a Human. Perhaps these were explorers like us who were less fortunate in their battle against the stone creatures.

On the Eladrin, Kale found a suit of Fey Touched Leather Armor and 1400 gold pieces. On the Human, Kale found a powerful Amulet of Protection (more powerful than the ones we had purchased earlier) and 2100 gold pieces. We decided to give the amulet to Firinne and the leather armor to Ryn, although Kale decided to wear the armor until Ryn reappeared.

"Did you find anything else?" we asked.

Kale seemed lost in thought as he stared at the Eladrin's body. "I wonder if I could skin this."

"What?"

"Well," Kale explained, "the skin of a Fey creature would be useful for magical purposes."

"Excuse me???" interjected Ryn, who suddenly appeared at Kale's side. "Did you forget that I'm an Eladrin? Do you mean skin me as well?"

"Oh," said Kale, "I didn't see you there."

"And my ancestors were natives of the Feywild as well," I mentioned, "and so are Garg and Firinne's ancestors, at least one one side."

Kale sighed. "Maybe I don't need the skin after all. I seem to remember my mentor, Sta Sokeus, mentioning that the skin of an Eladrin was not tough enough."

Meanwhile, Carlagnios looked around for Fasil and found him in a corner of the cavern.

"Why are you hiding there?" barked Carlagnios.

"Me? I am just waiting for my patroness to decide who will live and who will die. It does not matter to me if the stone creatures die or if you die. Either way, the outcome is still the same."

Firinne approached the archway and read the words above the archway aloud. "Map Room." The words were in Old Warrior and formed a pun of sorts. The same markings could also be interpreted to read, "You are here."

"This is where I stop," Fasil announced. "I will go no further than this."

"In the past," he continued, "I have led some here who have found the answers that they were seeking. I have performed rites on others who have never returned."

We turned toward the archway and looked into the Map Room. There was some danger here, and we needed to be ready.

"I will wait for you here," Fasil said. "If my patroness decides that you live, I will lead you back to the city."